


Caffeine Addiction

by Copper_Nails (Her_Madjesty)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bonding Over Coffee and Terrible Classes, Caffeine Addiction, F/M, Grad Student/AI!Kylo, Undergrad!Rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 09:40:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6513055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Her_Madjesty/pseuds/Copper_Nails
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two caffeine shots, one thermos of coffee, and the back half of a semester spent in a Critical Theory course. If that's not a recipe for late semester romance, then Kylo Ren doesn't know what is (no wonder he hasn't been on a date in a while).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caffeine Addiction

**Author's Note:**

> It's about four in the morning where I am right now, and I really wanted to get this posted, so my apologies if there's a mistake or two. I ended up writing this piece as a way to focus on more than just my Big Bang project, and I am a bit fond of it, even if it's a bit silly.
> 
> A bit of context: graduate students, if they're lucky, get their tuition paid in exchange for them teaching a course while they're attending university. In this fic, both Kylo and Hux are funded, thus both are taking classes while also teaching them.
> 
> Enjoy!

Kylo Ren has listened to William Hux agonize over the finer points of the critical theory of language for the past several years. Being forced to do so _again_ , and this time amongst the company of two dozen half-awake undergraduates, is a new low. And yet, Hux has requested Kylo’s presence in his classroom so Kylo can “judge him” before he has to present his end-of-year surveys to the wrath of the graduate board. Kylo, being the opportunistic bastard that he is, has no qualms about taking the opportunity to rip the other man apart. Failing that, he assumes he can at least disrupt the education of the few begrudging undergraduates who have actually managed to pay attention so far.

When he first attends Hux’s lecture on the Tuesday after spring break, Kylo finds himself sorely disappointed on both fronts.

Kylo glances around the room and counts one, two – four undergraduates who are actually still awake. Hux seems oblivious as he moves through his presentation, waxing poetic about Wimsatt and Beardsley while his class snores. Kylo scribbles down a note on Hux’s review sheet before turning his attention elsewhere.

The student to his left jolts, awakened either by the thunder of Hux’s voice or by pure misfortune. Kylo glances at her as she blinks herself awake, bleary-eyed and confused about where she is, or how she got there in the first place. The glaze in her eyes is slow to fade, but when it does it leaves them shining in the dull florescent light. She squints to better see the presentation, and Kylo watches as her mouth dips into a scowl.

“Shit.”

Kylo chokes back a snort. The girl’s movement catches his eye once more as she sinks down to rummage through her bag. When he glances over again, she’s set a small orange bottle on her desk – a caffeine shot, if he’s not mistaken. She’s still shuffling, however, and remains bent over until she’s lifted a thermos from who-knows-where. She uncaps the thermos as quietly as she can, then moves to uncap the shot. Kylo can’t stop his eyes from widening as she pours the shot into what he can only assume is coffee before bending down to retrieve another.

As she uncaps the second, she catches him staring. Kylo looks pointedly at the cup, and then back at the board.

The girl hesitates, then shrugs. She adds the second shot to her already deadly concoction, then swirls it around like a cocktail.

“I’m going to die,” she informs him. Without another word, she tilts the thermos back and starts to drink. Kylo doesn’t pretend to be subtle; he stares openly at her throat as she goes and then shifts, suddenly uncomfortable.

“You’re insane,” he tells her, as soon as she surfaces.

The woman shrugs again, shakes herself, and then turns her attention to the board. Kylo looks back to see Hux glaring at _him_ instead of the student who’s just condemned herself to over-caffeinated death. He glares back, all the while debating whether or not he should call an ambulance or just sit back and watch as she descends into madness.

When Hux’s ninety minutes of hell are complete, he goes to chase after the girl, but she’s gone before he’s even out of his chair. Hux clears his throat as Kylo starts gathering his things, commanding without words that he stay until the rest of the students have gone. Kylo lets out a sigh through his nose and sinks back into his seat. Agitation buzzes beneath his skin, and he would like nothing better than to tell the ginger man to shove it, but he can’t. Enduring this hell has won him a lot of favors, and he’s not in the place to let them go to waste.

That said, he still spends most of Hux’s post-lecture rant staring out the window. He catches himself wondering if it’d worth coming back, just to see the girl again.

“Are you even paying attention to me?” Hux demands, wrenching him back to the present. When Kylo only blinks, he throws his hands up in disgust. “This is hopeless,” Hux says.

“If you don’t want them to fall asleep, you should consider focusing on something more interesting,” Kylo snaps.

The two men glare at each other. Hux is the first to look away. He slumps against the white board and runs a hand through his perfectly-waxed hair.

“They’re going to be useless for the remainder of the semester,” he says. “Spring break is a travesty that needs to be eliminated from the college curriculum at once. I’ll spend the last few weeks of this blasted year repeating everything I said today at different levels of slowness only to fail half of them on the final exam.”

“Probably,” Kylo says – who is he to deny the obvious? “But, if you want to think about it this way, who do you think that reflects on? Them, or you?”

Hux’s exasperated grown covers the scrape of Kylo’s chair across the floor. “I think I’ll shadow you for a while longer,” he says, something clicking in his head. “If, by the last week of the semester, you truly think they have learned nothing, and through no fault of your own, I’ll help defend you when you go before Snoke.”

Hux blinks at him, slow and suspicious like a cat. “What’s in it for you?”

“I’d only ask the same,” Kylo says. “The students in my ‘Introduction to Literature’ class are not lacking for intelligence, but I suspect my end-of-semester reviews will be less than friendly.”

“There’s no question there as to who’s fault that is,” Hux sniffs. “But fine. You have yourself a deal, Ren.”

The two men shake on it, and then Kylo flees. He makes it to his own graduate level course with two minutes to spare and offers the exasperate professor a devil-may-care smile. The prospect of seeing Hux fail – and the opportunity to see the caffeine-addict again – is more than enough to brighten his day.

It doesn’t hit him until about midday that he’s agreed to spend his Tuesday and Thursday mornings enduring more critical theory. Kylo ends up smacking himself in the middle of the library stacks, attracting the attention of a concerned librarian and sympathetic glances from more than half the students there.

The things he does for a thrill are beginning to get ridiculous.

*

The cup of coffee he’s brought with him on Thursday is nearly drained before the class even starts. Most of the desks in the classroom are empty – typical for an early morning Thursday class. All the same, Hux is seething. He’s not pacing – he’d never lower himself to that – but his knuckles have gone white around the computer mouse that he’s cradling, and his lips have gone thin with hate. Kylo wants to throw a jab at him, just to see if he’ll explode, but it’s a ninety minute class, and contrary to popular belief, he doesn’t have a death wish.

With little to no time to spare – Hux has already cued up his presentation and is standing ready at the front of the room – Kylo’s salvation comes crashing through the door. She looks like she’s been run ragged: her hair, pulled back into three haphazard buns, is a mess, and the circles under her eyes are a deep and imposing purple. She half-falls into the seat beside him and makes a visible effort to keep her head from falling straight onto the desk. Kylo tries to hide his smile as she reaches into her bag and pulls out her notebook alongside her shots of caffeine.

“You’re going to hurt yourself, you know,” he murmurs, just as Hux clears his throat. The girl stops, halfway through her morning alchemy, and levels him with a look so fierce he’s shocked he doesn’t burn to ashes on the spot.

“Good,” she says before returning to her mixology. “Then it’s only really a matter of what gets to me first: my coffee, your face, or his lecturing.”

Kylo lets out a startled laugh that brings Hux’s attention to the back of the room. He waves the man away and pretends to be choking on his coffee. Hux narrows his eyes, but resumes his lesson.

When Kylo glances her way again, he sees that the girl is smiling. Her face looks younger when she smiles, he decides; she’s less of a ruin and more of the student she’s supposed to be. He’s not sure what to make of the warm feeling in his chest, but after a moment he brushes it aside.

He does his damndest to pay attention to the remainder of Hux’s lecture, but can’t help but glance her way every five minutes or so. By the time the class comes to an end, she’s bouncing in her seat. She’s gone again before he can stop her, or before he can catch her name.

They fall into a routine as the semester drags on: he greets her with a look of amused distaste, she snaps something derogatory at him, and they spend the remaining eighty five minute trying not to make eye contact. It’s as amusing as it is trying, and half the time Kylo’s not sure why he wagered that it would make Hux’s lectures worth it, but then she smiles at him – actually smiles – and he stops thinking for a clear, blissful moment.

It’s only when Hux announces the move into post-structuralism that he truly wonders at the cost. Kylo wakes up at the ass crack of dawn one morning and cannot – physically cannot – make himself get out of bed to go an attempt what is bound to be a mind-numbing lecture. Even thoughts of the girl (and no, he still doesn’t know her name) can’t motivate him. He simply does not have it in him to carry on.

(No one ever pegged him for a dramatist, but if asked, Kylo’s mother will inform the questioner that her son would have made a fabulous actor on some mid-day soap opera.)

He manages to get some grading done in the wee hours of that free morning, but he’s twitching by the end of it. When he makes it into the graduate office he finds Hux waiting for him, arms crossed and snarling.

“It seems you’ve broken our agreement,” he says as Kylo moves past him.

“I had too much grading to do,” Kylo lies, but it’s not a good one. “I’ll be there for your next class to continue judging you.”

“Don’t bother,” Hux snips. “I don’t think I can stand to stare at your face in the back of my classroom for much longer, anyway. Though I must admit, you’re doing a fine job of keeping at least one of my students awake.” With a disdainful side eye, Hux turns on his heel and storms out of the office.

Kylo watches him go and tries to ignore the fluttering hope inside his chest.

He spends most of the weekend cursing himself – he’d skipped a Thursday class and now has to wait four days before he can see his lovely distraction again. When it comes time for class on Tuesday morning, he’s the first in the room, beating even Hux, and wondering just when he’d become so thoroughly desperate.

Hux glowers at him from the moment he walks in, but doesn’t send him packing. Instead, he sets down his things, levels Kylo with a solid glare, and storms out of the room.

Five minutes until class starts, and he still hasn’t returned. The three-bunned girl comes stumbling into the room with two cups of coffee in her hand and beams at the sight of her missing professor. She turns her head and catches sight of him, next, and – her gaze shifts. It’s not disappointment, Kylo notes with a flush. No, it’s something far more positive; he’d almost call it approving, accept his self-confidence isn’t that high.

“Where were you, jackass?” she asks as she comes to sit next to him.

“I took a sick day,” Kylo shrugs. “I didn’t know you’d miss me so much.”

The girl rolls her eyes. She sets her cups of coffee down on her desk before throwing herself into her seat. The sense of familiarity as she reaches for her pack is a balm to Kylo’s soul, albeit one he didn’t know he needed.

“You’ve upped your game,” he notes, nodding towards her two cups. “That’s a sign of addiction, you know. You’re always going to have to chase that high.”

“Like you know so much about that,” the girl huffs (though it sounds more like a laugh). When she rights herself again, Kylo sees that she’s smiling, and that there are no bottles of caffeine hidden in her hands – only her notebook, though her left fist remains closed. “One of them’s for you, unless you’re going to be a jerk about it.”

She unfurls her hand to reveal packs of sugar and two cups of cream. “I wasn’t sure how you’d want it,” she says, “So it’s just black, but I brought some of everything.”

Kylo blinks at her. Then he drops his gaze to her hand. His ears have turned the brightest of reds, but if he’s lucky, his long hair will cover most of his embarrassment.

Their hands brush as he takes the sugar from her. He feels like he’s about to catch fire.

“Which one is mine?” he asks, when he really means “thank you”.

The girl looks down and frowns at the cups. “You know, I think it’s this one,” she says, pointing to the one on the right. “But I’m really not sure anymore.”

Kylo snorts and takes the offered cup in hand. As he goes to take a sip, Hux storms back into the classroom. Kylo glances at the clock – class was supposed to start five minutes ago. Every single student in the room, including himself, seems to sink with disappointment at the ginger professor’s return.

“Ren!” Hux shouts, his face a plummy purple. “Director Snoke wants to see you about your behavior; get the hell out of my classroom.”

Despite himself, Kylo smirks. “Went running to mommy, did you?” All the same, he gathers his things and tries to ignore the stare he’s getting from the girl at his side. He offers Hux a salute with his coffee cup as he goes swaggering from the classroom. The undergrads stare after him in awe (or so he hopes; in all honesty, he’s not really looking).

Only a few steps into the hall he stops and leans against the nearest wall. As he works to compose himself, he takes a sip of his gifted coffee.

All at once, he chokes and pulls the cup away from his lips.

Whatever’s in this cup, it’s a close cousin of rocket fuel. His heart is pounding, and he’s only had one sip. It is a miracle that that girl is still alive and well; Kylo doesn’t want to imagine the state of her organs, let alone the caffeine hangover she’s bound to face. He almost feels bad, but his mouth is still burning and he can’t make himself feel pity just yet.

The girl’s name glares up at him, too innocent for such a vile drink. It takes Kylo a minute to read the looping cursive.

Rey. Her name is Rey.

Kylo considers throwing the drink away, but it sticks with him as he walks from the building. Long after he’s arrived in the grad office, it’s still there, undrunk but lingering like a bad cold. By the end of the day, Kylo is glaring at it, and has to make a concentrated effort to throw it out before he starts for home.

He’s going to see her again. He won’t be able to go back to Hux’s class (Director Snoke read him the riot act; if he steps out of line before the semester’s out, he’s toast), but that’s really not so bad. It’s a small campus, and he’s occasionally clever; it’s a rare thing, but he’s willing to make an effort.

As he’s walking home, his email alert goes off on his phone. This is not an unusual thing, so Kylo doesn’t pay it any mind. When a red light stops him at a crosswalk, he pulls out his phone and opens his inbox, expecting another reaming from Snoke or some victory crow from Hux.

It’s neither.

<< From: Rey Kenobi

To: Benjamen Solo

Subject: Lying Liar Who Lies

Hey, asshole. You owe me a cup of coffee. >>

Kylo misses the next light change and ends up waiting through another round of traffic before he can actually move. He doesn’t know how she found him (and he doubts that Hux told her his name), but his heart is trying to pound its way out of his chest. He walks the rest of the way to his apartment with a spring in his step, and sends a response within moments of walking through his apartment door.

<< From: Benjamen Solo

To: Rey Kenobi

Subject: Omissions are not actually lies

We’ll see. >>

He spends the next several days avoiding both Hux and Snoke, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. When the next Tuesday comes around, he’s waiting outside the classroom door (Hux is already inside and unaware of his presence – Kylo knows. He’s checked.)

There are two cups of coffee in his hands: one with four shots of espresso, and the other with just one.

Rey comes barreling around the corner with a dazed look in her eye and nearly crashes into him where he stands. Only when she rights herself (her small hands pressed to his chest) does she manage to pin him with her glare.

“You,” she says, taking a step back (and she is so short that she barely reaches his collarbone; if Kylo doesn’t fall in love right then and there, then he doesn’t know how else to explain his flush.) “You lied to me. AND you took my coffee.”

“I never actually lied to you,” Kylo says with a shrug. “You never asked, and I never told.” He presses the correct cup of coffee into her hand and sees her visibly soften. She sniffs it, suspicious, and pulls away satisfied.

“That wasn’t how things worked,” she says before taking a sip. “I drank, you scowled, and we both pretened to listen. I thought you were another student!”

“And technically, I am,” Kylo says. “I’m just a grad student instead of an undergrad.”

Rey huffs, and glances at her watch. Kylo figures he has two minutes left to maintain their conversation, and he doesn’t intend to waste them.

“How did you learn my name?”

“Hux grumbled about you for a full half hour after you left,” Rey admits. “And when I realized you took my coffee, I wanted to hunt you down. Your pseudonym is listed next to your real name in the grad student profiles, you know.”

He didn’t, actually. Kylo takes a sip of his own coffee to cover his embarrassment. “That’s a little stalkerish, don’t you think?”

“Nah,” Rey glances at her watch again. “Hey, I’ve gotta go, and you should run before Hux sees you. Thanks for the coffee, though.”

“You’re welcome.” It’s odd, coming out in his deep, awkward voice, but he manages it. Rey smiles at him, then ducks around him to go charging into the classroom.

Kylo watches her go, then moves to walk around the nearest corner, lest Hux suspect him of lingering too long.

Safely out of view, Kylo finds himself dawdling. Would it be strange if he was waiting for her after class? Probably, and he’d only have a few minutes to spare before running off to his own. Could he email her again? Maybe, but it wouldn’t be the same as actually _seeing_ her. Kylo sighs and pushes his hair out of his eyes.

By all accounts, he has better things to do than chase after an undergraduate caffeine addict, no matter how entertaining she may be. It’d be best for him to put her from his mind and move on with his life.

Kylo settles himself on this, and pushes off the wall. He walks to the grad office with new determination in his step and a firm grip on his heart.

He manages to hold onto this determination for all of a day. Then, an email appears in his inbox.

<< From: Rey Kenobi

To: Benjamen Solo

Subject: Critical Theory

Can you help me make sense of Derrida? I know it’s not exactly your area, but you have to make more sense than Hux does. You’re the only chance I’ve got. >>

Kylo deliberates not responding, but his traitorous fingers are moving before he can stop them.

Their conversations after he explains signature event context move in rivers, drifting from the horrors of critical theory to more personal matters. There are a few arguments – she continues to call him an asshole, and he calls her naïve more than once – but otherwise, they get along. After a week or so, their tones become teasing: Rey sends him pictures of her coffee orders, and he sends her herbal tea in a sort-of mocking concern. They don’t seek each other out, but Kylo is content with the friendship they’ve built. At least, that’s what he tells himself.

By the time dead week flings itself towards their unsuspecting heads, Kylo is buried in work, as is Rey. They complain to one another over emails that grow less frequent. It’s not until the Friday before finals week that Kylo finds a response to his latest message. The subject line has been altered, but he doesn’t pay it any mind.

<< From: Rey Kenobi

To: Benjamen Solo

Subject: Meet me?

If I spend another afternoon locked in this apartment, I’m going to lose my mind. You want to meet up for coffee or something? >>

Kylo, who’s sitting on the floor with his student’s final papers spread out around him, is more than happy to oblige her.

They agree to meet at the edge of campus when their days have come to an end (or rather, have begun – the hours Rey prefers to keep are eclectic, to say the least). She’s waiting for him when Kylo arrives. He steps off a campus with his patented look of disdain and finds her deep in conversation with a woman on a pale blue bike. She’s wrapped in an off-white sundress that makes her look heavenly and leaves Kylo struggling to breathe. He’s grateful for her distraction as he takes a moment to collect himself, brushing imaginary dirt off of his ratty old t-shirt before making his way over to her side.

She notices him only when he’s about three feet away and almost snaps her neck for her surprise. The smile on her face turns surprisingly wicked, and her eyes go unusually bright.

The woman on the bike bids them both goodbye, but neither of them hear her.

“You know,” Kylo says, his voice cutting into the warm spring air. “I think this is the most awake I’ve ever seen you.”

Rey rolls her eyes. “Nighttime is a little more bearable.” She’s explained this to him before, after an email arrived at four in the morning. It had almost led to an argument, but after she’d explained her reasoning, Kylo really couldn’t blame her. If he’d grown up in a place like Jakku Junction, he’d want to avoid the light of day, too.

They fall into step beside one another, talking about nothing as they head downtown. The bars on either side of them are crawling with shouting students, and the sandwich shop to their left smells like fresh bread and marijuana, but they are neither interested nor surprised. It’s only when Rey lets out a gasp that Kylo pays any mind to the world around them at all. In the next moment, she’s on the run, and his world narrows once more. Kylo chases her down the street as she goes in pursuit of a food truck that’s just pulling away from a well-fed, slightly greasy crowd. Kylo wants to laugh, but the air has left his lungs and all he can do is run.

They chase the truck for two or three blocks until the driver takes pity on them and comes to a stop. They come up to the window with laughter on their lips and struggle to order, much to the cook’s chagrin. Rey cons Kylo into buying her a gyro and lets the grease run down her fingers while he waits for his.

They eat and walk at the same time, moving until they’ve left the worst of the crowds behind. The streetlights pop on with inaudible sizzles and bath the sidewalks in a yellow glow as the last rays of sun fade over the horizon.

“Why did you come keep coming back, after that first day?” Rey asks, the words warping as she licks the last of the gyro grease from her fingers. “I was bored to tears the whole time, but I was forced to be there. You could’ve left whenever you wanted.”

Kylo hesitates and wads up his gyro wrap before he goes to answer. The truth sits on the tip of his tongue, but he swallows it back with considerable effort. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t kill yourself,” he says, and really, that’s only half a lie. “I’ve told you: with all the caffeine you drink, I’m surprised your body still functions.”

To his complete lack of surprise, Rey only shrugs. “I do what I have to do,” she says. “Anyway, I’ve got too much work to do to do anything, otherwise. You really think I’m going to let a little thing like personal health stop me?”

She looks so young in the yellow street light that Kylo almost believes her. But the exhaustion remains, hidden behind her eyes, and he knows it’s not true.

Rey shivers and wraps her arms around her tight.

“Come on,” Kylo says, stepping away before he can put an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s get you home.”

“I don’t want to go home yet,” Rey murmurs. She lets him turn her around, all the same. “Can’t we do something else first?”

There’s something in her voice that brings Kylo up short and kills the ‘no’ that’s resting on his lips. He spares her a glance – just one – and lets out a sigh. “I suppose staying out a little longer won’t kill me.”

“Old man,” Rey teases. Kylo pretends to blanche, but the smile on her face buries itself in his heart.

They don’t turn around, but take a circular route back towards the edge of campus. Their conversation stalls, though Kylo can’t pinpoint why, nor why he feels the need to continue. He finds himself staring at the sky and glancing at Rey from the corner of his eyes, as though she’s going to turn to him and say – something, though he doesn’t know what. His fingers itch to reach out and touch her, but he doesn’t. It takes a concentrated effort for him to keep himself composed.

A group of young men comes stumbling out of what looks to be a restaurant but is more likely a bar just as the edge of campus comes into view. Kylo feels more than sees Rey tense, and pulls himself up tight. Neither of them say a word, but the message read in their body language is clear.

“Hey,” one of the young men slurs. “Hey, you. You look really pretty tonight!”

“Thanks,” Rey murmurs.

Kylo moves closer to her side, willing his presence to turn the young men away. Instead, the speaker seems to focus on him. His mouth, turned up in a hazy smile, slips into a scowl. “What do you think you’re doing, you emo fuck?”

Kylo grits his teeth. The young man falls into step beside them as they continue on while his group of cronies flanks them from behind. Kylo hesitates only a moment before tossing his arm around Rey’s shoulder, pulling her in close to his side and out of the young man’s range.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!”

They make it to the crosswalk without further engagement. Kylo stares up at the glaring red light and wills it to change, but to no avail. He and Rey exchange brief, morbid looks of determination as the man’s insults grow louder.

Just as the light turns green, a hand comes smacking down on Rey’s shoulder. She’s whipped around by one of the man’s lackeys, whose grin has turned yellow in the darkness of night. She breaks free from his grasp in moments and goes stumbling back into Kylo’s chest – he’d turned with her and stepped into her space at once. Now he pulls her back, tucking her behind him as the group moves forward.

“You know,” the group’s spokesman says with a cocksure grin. “It’s awful rude to ignore people when they’re trying to get your attention.”

“Is it?” Rey bites back. “I’m so sorry, then. We thought you were talking to someone who cared.”

There’s a round of ‘oooh’s from the back of the group that leave the boy at the front scrambling for purchase, both with Rey and with his own pack. Kylo doesn’t say a word as the boy stutters back a response.

“No, don’t speak,” Rey says, cutting him off before he can begin. “We have better things to do tonight than listen to you. Go home before you get yourself in trouble.”

“And try to stay out of the road,” Kylo says. He leans forward to better look the young man in the eye. The smile he offers the pack is far from reassuring. “Or don’t. I suppose a game of Frogger would be a good way to sober you all up.”

The threat hangs in the air and sends some of the boys stumbling back. Kylo’s grin doesn’t fade until he feels Rey loop her arm with his. “Come on, Kylo,” she says, her voice carrying through the night. “Let’s go home.” She lifts her nose in the air and turns on her heel, careful not to jostle him as she carries him with her. They’ve managed to cross the street before the group of boys regain themselves. By then, the only injuries they can inflict are verbal ones, and those roll of the duo’s back like the barest sprinkles of rain.

All the same, Kylo flicks them off with the hand not currently wrapped up in Rey’s.

“Was that enough adventure for you tonight?” he asks as the shouting falls away. “Or do you want to go back there and get in a proper fist fight?”

“I’d win that fist fight and you know it,” Rey grumbles.

“I don’t doubt it,” Kylo says diplomatically. “But you have to at least let me walk you home now. Regardless of your athletic prowess, it would be difficult to take more than two of them at once.”

For a moment, Rey seems to pout. She disentangles her hand from his and runs it through her hair, while the streetlights dance in her golden-green eyes. “I suppose,” she says, at last. “You’ll be good back up, in any case.”

“Or I’ll be the one to bail you out,” Kylo shrugs. He motions her forward as the gates appear and loom before them. “Lead the way.”

Rey almost rolls her eyes – he sees her stop herself – and resumes her march forward. Kylo watches her for a moment before falling into step, his long legs diminishing the space between them in moments.

Something’s different, but he can’t quite tell what. Kylo watches the stars, instead, and contributes what he can to the conversation that Rey tries to make. There’s an ache building in his chest, though, that seems to stem from a heat in his hand. It’s a strange, disjointed feeling, and he wants to press it, but at the same time, it hurts, so he sets it aside.

Rey lives in an apartment complex just north of the campus, one that’s too quiet to attract attention on even the rowdiest of Friday nights. She lets him walk her all the way to her front door, anyway. If Kylo closes his eyes, he can hear someone else’s voice – a woman’s – echoing as she sings just inside. It seems like a happy home, and the pang in his chest grows harsher before Rey turns to offer him a smile.

“Thank you for tonight,” she says as she fumbles to retrieve her keys. “This – this was nice. We should do it again sometime.”

“We should,” Kylo nods, and regrets letting the words slip from his mouth. He’s done this before, “we should, we should”, and it’s not quite a death sentence, but it’s damn well close. Rey lingers and keeps her gaze on her keys, but he can tell she expected him to say something else and that it’s disappointment that’s dropped her gaze so low.

“Well,” she says, after a beat. “I’d better get inside. If I email you this weekend, will you help me pass my final?”

“I will,” Kylo nods. “I can’t give you the test answers, but I can do my best.”

To his relief, Rey chuckles. Kylo’s hand reaches out just as she turns away, ready to fit her key into her lock and disappear without a sound. It brushes over her shoulder and makes her look back. There’s confusion written in her brow, but hope, too – if he’s brave enough to think of it as hope, that is, because his heart is pounding and he’s losing himself in bright, widened eyes and a mouth that’s parted like a song.

“I,” Kylo stutters, desperate for something to say. “I – you asked why I came back.” He doesn’t want to be saying this, but he wants her to stay, and it’s the only thing he can think of that won’t send her running from him like he’s the most awkward man on this side of campus. “I wasn’t exactly lying when I said I was worried, but it’s a little – well, it’s a little more than that –”

There’s a gentle hand pressing up against his. Kylo’s tongue stops working as he stares down at this golden girl; this girl who’s glowing in the shitty light of her apartment lighting spotlight.

“I figured, Kylo,” she says, and heaven and hell, it almost sounds like she’s laughing. Then she’s on her toes and – and she’s still too short to kiss him properly, of course, but her lips land on his chin, and then she’s laughing out loud instead of with her eyes and he can’t help but lean forward and catch her lips with his. He swallows her laughter like a drug and rests his hands on her small shoulders. It’s by far the best decision he’s made all semester – maybe even all year.

They separate in increments. Rey moves from his mouth to his nose, then down to his neck; Kylo rests his forehead against her crown and relishes the way her lips move against his skin. It’s only a knock on the other side of the door that sends them scurrying apart.

“Rey?” a woman’s voice says. “Are you coming inside, or are you going to make out with your boyfriend all night?”

The flush on Rey’s cheeks is beautiful, and Kylo nearly tells her so. He’s cut off, however, as she rushes to explain.

“That’s my roommate, Jessika, an _eavesdropping asshole_ ,” the last bit is clearly not meant for him, but he appreciates the laughter coming from the apartment. “I’ll – can I see you again sometime?”

“Of course you can,” Kylo says, and hell, he can’t catch his breath. “Here, give me your phone. That’ll be easier than email.”

Rey snorts, but passes her phone over anyway. Jessika’s resumed her singing by the time she gets it back, and Kylo’s developed a blush that goes all the way down his throat and up to his ears.

“I’ll text you soon,” Rey says, before kissing him again. Kylo whimpers as she pulls away, his hands following after her as she retreats into her apartment. She winks at him just before she goes, and then she’s out of sight.

He’s left standing there with his heart pounding and a slow smile working its way across his face. It takes him a number of minutes to compose himself enough to turn away from her door and start down the street. Even then, he can’t bring himself to stop smiling for at least an hour more.

*

Finals week leaves Kylo Ren breathless, as well, but in a way that’s far less pleasant than being kissed by a pretty girl. While he doesn’t manage to actually see Rey, he does manage to text her. They swap complaints about studying, then about poorly timed exams, all while the semester burns itself down to a bitter end.

It’s late Thursday afternoon when things come to a close. Kylo’s got the last of his students’ exams spread out on a spare desk in the graduate office and is going over them with a meticulous red pen, all while fielding texts from an increasingly impatient – girlfriend? Can he call her his girlfriend yet? He doesn’t know, but what he _does_ know is that if he spends another hour hunched over at this too small desk, his students are all going to _fail_ , and through no fault of their own.

He’s got two exams left when Hux comes storming into the office.

“Look!” the man shouts, slamming an off-white paper down on Kylo’s desk. “Look what your wretched little _girlfriend_ did to my precious exam!”

Kylo blinks at the paper and takes in the slant of Rey’s abysmal handwriting. He can’t read most of it, but the few words he does catch cause him to smile. If he’s correct – and he’s sure he is – Rey has spent her eight required pages of critical theory eviscerating Hux’s New Criticism and leaving it in ribbons on the ground.

“Well,” he says as he chokes down a laugh. “At least you know she was paying attention.”

This clearly is not the answer Hux is looking for. He narrows his gaze as he rips the exam from Kylo’s desk and continues to stare at him as he backs out of the office. Kylo lets him have his fun, then dips his head once the coast is clear. He sends off a quick text to Rey before moving on to his last exam.

<< Ben Solo:

You know, purposefully pissing off your professor is _not_ the way to get a good grade in a class.  >>

Rey responds within moments, some of her previous impatience transforming into amusement.

<< Rey Kenobi:

Good grade, shmood grade. That paper is some of my best work. If he wants to fail me, we can take it up with the department. >>

<< Rey Kenobi:

Anyway, I had fun >>

<< Rey Kenobi:

Are you done yet? >>

Kylo snorts and sets his phone aside. The last exam goes smoothly (only three marks of the red pen), then goes into a manila envelope with all the rest. He drops them off in Director Snoke’s mailbox, gathers his things, and starts for the building door.

Rey is waiting for him at the bottom of the front steps, her pale sundress wrapped around her legs and a smirk on her face.

“You took forever,” she says as she goes to kiss him. Kylo lets her weave a hand through his hair and cradles her face between his hands until his head starts to feel woozy.

“I’m sorry,” he says, when he finally pulls away. “But I’m here now.”

“And we have all the time in the world,” Rey smiles. There’s a coffee in her right hand, Kylo notices, as they start to walk away. He has to stifle a laugh, and barely manages, but it doesn’t matter, in the end.

Caffeine isn’t the worst thing to be addicted to, anyway.


End file.
